Attend to the Call of the Heart

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Years come and years go, and I wonder how many of us are moving with the time, surpassing time. You know there is a proverb which says, time and tide wait for no man. There are so many messages which have been given by Babuji Maharaj, and so many messages now, too.

When we travel by road and we look at the milestone on the side of the road, each time we pass a milestone we know we are nearer the destination. For us every day, every morning when we wake up it should be another milestone in our spiritual progress. I wonder how many of us are really conscious, are aware that as time passes, we have less and less time ahead of us. In our material journey as milestones pass, it is good to have less and less distance in front of us to reach our destination. But in the spiritual journey as days pass, and as we become aware that we have less and less time to achieve our goal, we should, if we are sensible, if we have the craving for spiritual growth to reach our destination, we should do everything possible to accelerate our pace so that we can reach the goal within this lifetime. At least by the time we end our mortal life, we should be There.

All our facilities that are created by the grace of my Masters: ashrams, retreat centres, gatherings which we call bhandaras, sittings, either individual or groups, all these are to promote our spiritual welfare and growth. Are we aware that each sitting that we take, when we close our eyes we should be something, when we open our eyes we should have moved on? I am afraid that sense of urgency is lacking in almost all abhyasis. We are prone to pay more attention to our material progress, to our health, to our income, and to so many other things which are part of the material life, the human life: our loves and hates, our aspirations. And sadly, I think, if at all we have any cognizance, any awareness of the spiritual life in which we are involved, it takes last place. It is a sad thing to have to repeat this again and again, day after day, year after year.

I am happy to wish you all a happy new year, but a happy new year is not enough. Instead of looking for happiness — (I hesitate to say it), we should look to how many problems we have surmounted, how many problems are yet to be surmounted, because the spiritual life, when all is said and done, is not meant to be a happy life. It is meant to be a progressive life. It is meant to be a life of inner awareness and inner growth, of a luminosity arising within the heart of which saints speak that even at night, you should be able to move by the light from your heart, without having to have torch lights and other external aids

Do we have this craving? I hope it will develop in all of you. We have sufficient literature. We have so many DVDs; even today we are releasing some. But they should not fall on deaf ears. It is like the old Christian saying, ‘Ye have eyes but ye see not; you have ears but you hear not,’ things like that, you see. You have legs but you only go for exercise; not to walk towards the goal. We are too preoccupied with our health, with our gymnasiums, with our health clubs, with our walks, with our diets

This body is only a vehicle for the soul. The body is given to us only so that we can progress in this life from birth to death, and thereafter we don’t need the body any more. It is like a car or a train or an aeroplane, only to take us from here to there, and after that we abandon it. But spirituality says, yogic literature says, psychic literature says, we come back again and again because, rather than being a passenger in a train who gets in at his beginning and gets out at the end, we seem to be like the drivers and the conductors who go up and down all the time. I can understand the spiritual guide like my Master, condemning himself, though he belongs to the Brighter World; one part of him is here going up and down like a ferry crossing the river, taking more and more passengers to the other side. But we should not be there with him. We should be there with him through the journey, and then with him in the Brighter World where he is, in his divine self

Exhortations are useless, because people say, “What is this? Again and again.” Yes, of course, again and again! Otherwise we are like the biblical bucket which goes into the well, again and again, and comes back empty.

I know, one part of you, there is this craving — not craving but at least desire. It is perhaps magnified when you come here, and you feel, you know, that there is something in it after all, because it brings you back here, and you are willing to stay here facing all the problems of life: lack of accommodation, lack of facilities. But when we leave the gate again, we are back in that life

So, dear sisters and brothers: we must pay more attention to the call of the heart, the call of the voice from within. If necessary, close your ears to the outer world. Shut your eyes, don’t listen. We have to turn our attention through the five senses which God has given us, from outside to inside. Without this turnaround, spirituality remains but a subject about which we speak, about which we discuss, about which we undergo training, but to which we pay no heed and therefore we remain where we are

As is customary, I pray for all of you. May every day see you in a different position on the spiritual ladder, going up and up; never coming down, never looking back. May my Masters bless you with all that is good.